Legend Management Bureau Chapter 173

[ … words ]

“Strange…” Fahai muttered. He had been checking the woman’s pulse for a long time, but instead of showing signs of illness, it seemed more like she had been poisoned.

“May I ask you, benefactors,” Fahai said, turning to the surrounding crowd of commoners. “Do the afflicted in your families also suffer from unbearable abdominal pain like this female benefactor?”

“Yes, yes!” The townspeople nodded in unison.

“How bizarre…” Fahai felt deeply perplexed. If only one person exhibited signs of poisoning, it might be the work of a personal enemy. But what could cause so many people to be poisoned simultaneously?

“Master, what is wrong with my wife?” the husband asked anxiously.

Fahai nodded helplessly and replied, “It is poison. Benefactor, if this old monk may be so bold to ask, did your wife consume anything unusual today?”

The man froze. “Poison?”

He and his wife had always been peaceful people who never made enemies. Who would poison them? Looking around at his fellow townsfolk, almost every household had someone showing the exact same symptoms. Could they all have been poisoned at the same time?

“Master, to tell you the truth, my wife recently caught a chill. Her appetite has been extremely poor. She only drank some water today and hasn’t eaten a single bite of food.”

“Water from the well in our own courtyard,” the man answered.

“Benefactor, hurry and fetch a bowl of that water!”

In no time at all, the man drew a bowl of well water from his courtyard and brought it to Fahai. The monk lifted the bowl and took a sniff. A sharp, pungent odor hit his nose, causing him to exclaim, “Could the poison be in the water?”

The surrounding crowd jumped in fright. “Master, are you saying someone poisoned the wells?”

Still uncertain, Fahai casually pulled a silver hairpin from a nearby woman’s hair and dipped it into the water.

A moment later, he pulled it out. The silver hairpin had turned pitch black.

“Ah!” The townsfolk finally realized Fahai was speaking the truth. “There really is poison in the water!”

“Master, what is going on?! We are all just ordinary commoners who have never provoked anyone! Who would commit such a vicious act against us?!”

Fahai knitted his brows in deep thought. ‘Could all of this be related to those two massive, malevolent demonic auras?’

‘Those two demonesses… have they truly begun taking their revenge on the people?’

…

Bai Suzhen, Shiranui Asuka, and Medusa were stunned the moment they arrived at the pharmacy. To their surprise, a massive crowd of locals had gathered in the dead of night, desperately seeking medical treatment.

“Shopkeeper, what happened?” Bai Suzhen asked.

“Oh my, young lady! Since you are now young Xu’s wife, you are practically a member of this pharmacy. This old man is truly at his wit’s end, I can only beg for your help!”

“Please, Shopkeeper, just give the word. My sister and I will naturally do everything in our power to assist!”

“These good folks seem to have been struck by a peculiar poison. I need to brew an antidote for them. Please, hurry and help me gather the ingredients according to the prescription and start brewing the medicine!”

“Understood!”

Bai Suzhen and Shiranui Asuka immediately got to work, but Medusa stood to the side, looking utterly baffled.

“If these people are poisoned, it only proves they suffer from rotten luck. You aren’t deities, so why are you helping these lowly commoners?”

Bai Suzhen glanced back at Medusa and replied, “Sister, what you say is incorrect. Just because we aren’t deities, does that mean we cannot strive to be kind? These are living, breathing human lives. If we do not step in to help, they will very likely die!”

Medusa still did not quite grasp the concept. Back in her days in the Hellenic domain, simply refraining from slaughtering people was already considered a great blessing for the masses. Yet now, she was expected to rescue these completely unrelated strangers? Just the thought of it felt ridiculous.

However, seeing Shiranui Asuka and Bai Suzhen bustling about, she had no choice but to follow suit.

“Miss Xiaoqing!” the pharmacy shopkeeper called out. “Hurry to the backyard and fetch some water! They must have consumed something highly toxic. Right now, our priority is to induce vomiting! Bring the water and force it down their throats!”

Medusa let out a faint sigh, thinking to herself that the peasants these days were growing increasingly impudent. To think he actually dared to order her to fetch water.

Despite her inner grumbling, she silently walked to the backyard and drew a bucket of water from the well. Wearing an expression of total impatience, she marched over to the sick patients, picked up a bowl from the side, and was just about to force the water down their throats when the shopkeeper abruptly stopped her.

“Wait!” The shopkeeper gasped in alarm. “Where did you get this water from?”

“From the well in the courtyard,” Medusa answered, a hint of anger in her voice. “Didn’t you just tell me to go fetch water?”

Having worked with medicinal herbs since childhood, the shopkeeper possessed a highly sensitive nose. The moment the bucket of water was brought into the room, he sensed something off. Dropping what he was doing, he rushed over to inspect it. His brows furrowed as he cupped a small amount in his hands and took a tiny sip.

“Pah, pah, pah!” the shopkeeper spat violently before roaring, “There is a deadly poison in our well water! Someone has poisoned it!”

“Poisoned?!” the commoners cried out in terror. “Who could be so vicious?! The Huichun Pharmacy’s well sits upstream of the city. Once this well is poisoned, half the population of Hangzhou will be poisoned along with it!”

Bai Suzhen immediately sensed that things were taking a disastrous turn. The pharmacy shopkeeper seemed like a genuinely kindhearted man. If someone was planting poison here, there was an eighty percent chance they were targeting her.

“Shopkeeper!” Bai Suzhen called out. “Did anyone come by just now?”

“Just now?” The shopkeeper narrowed his eyes, thinking for a moment. “This old man only saw a young monk rush in hurriedly and sprint straight into the backyard…”

Shiranui Asuka widened her eyes as well, secretly thinking to herself, ‘Ah, Senior Du Yu sprinted over at top speed just now to save me… Did he conveniently drop some poison while he was at it?’

Medusa also felt a surge of doubt. Du Yu had appeared just moments ago, only to vanish without a trace. Could he truly have been the one to poison the well?

But this part was never in the script… Then again, she remembered Dong Qianqiu telling her that the script meant absolutely nothing to Du Yu. He could do something bizarre at any given moment. Thus, she chose not to voice her suspicions.

“A young monk?!” Bai Suzhen bit her lip in fury. “Was he really sent by Fahai?! That bald donkey! He still refuses to let my husband and me go in peace?!”

…

Running through the dead of night in Hangzhou, Du Yu found the atmosphere incredibly strange.

Why did tonight feel like the Lunar New Year festival? There were clamoring voices everywhere.

“M-Monk, wait for me!” a voice cried out from behind him.

Du Yu turned his head and saw a heavily bruised and battered Xu Xian stumbling over.

“Eh?” Du Yu paused in surprise. “Amitabha, God bless you. May I ask what business you have with me, benefactor?”

Seeing Du Yu stop, Xu Xian finally managed to catch his breath. “Monk, I can understand ‘Amitabha’, but what on earth does ‘God bless you’ mean?”

Du Yu curled his lip in exasperation. “My line of work is highly specialized, so I believe in quite a few deities. I haven’t even brought out ‘Hallelujah’ or ‘Almighty Allah’ yet.”

Xu Xian waved his hand dismissively, steadying his breathing. “How many deities you worship is your own business, I don’t care. Can you just take me to see your master?”

“See my master? What for?”

“I-I…” Xu Xian looked somewhat embarrassed. “Your master tried to save me earlier, but I didn’t believe him and nearly lost my life as a result… Right now, I’ve got wolves in front of me and tigers at my back. I have this lingering feeling that those women want me dead. I’m guessing only your master can save me now.”

Du Yu lowered his head in deep thought, silently communicating with Dong Qianqiu in his mind.

‘Sister Qianqiu, what happens next in the plot? Is Xu Xian supposed to come with me?’

‘Yes, Du Yu,’ Dong Qianqiu nodded silently. ‘According to the legends, after Xu Xian is resurrected by Bai Suzhen, he remains deeply terrified of her. Deceived by Fahai’s words, Xu Xian follows him to Jinshan Temple to become a monk. Overwhelmed by sheer rage, Bai Suzhen storms the temple in retaliation. She summons the waters of the five lakes, four seas, and three rivers, causing the legendary event known as the Flooding of Jinshan Temple.’

Du Yu’s expression grew solemn upon hearing this. ‘And the result?’

‘The result?’ Dong Qianqiu asked. ‘What result?’

‘The outcome of this Flooding of Jinshan Temple.’

Dong Qianqiu fell silent for a moment before replying. ‘The outcome is that during the magical battle, Bai Suzhen suddenly suffers unbearable abdominal pain and gives birth to a baby boy. Because of this, she loses the battle and is suppressed beneath the Leifeng Pagoda. Xiaoqing uses the chaos as an opportunity to flee with the infant.’

Du Yu sighed heavily. He cast a complicated look back at Xu Xian, a single thought echoing in his mind—’If I take this man with me, Bai Suzhen will end up throwing her life away.’

“What’s wrong, monk?” Xu Xian stared at Du Yu in confusion. “Don’t you Buddhists always say ‘saving a life builds more merit than erecting a seven-tier pagoda’? I’m practically at death’s door here, so hurry up and save me!”

Staring at Xu Xian’s utterly shameless expression, Du Yu hardened his heart and said, “I can save you, but I have two conditions you must agree to.”

“Conditions?” Xu Xian rolled his eyes thoughtfully. “Alright, name them.”

“The first condition: if you want to live, you must follow my master and become a monk. From this day forward, you are forbidden from ruining another woman’s life. Otherwise, I will tip off those women and have them hunt you down relentlessly, day and night.”

Xu Xian was taken aback. Why did this monk sound like he was threatening him? But right now, with his life hanging by a thread, becoming a monk was still far better than dropping dead!

“F-Fine…” Xu Xian nodded. “And the second?”

“The second condition is that I want you to write a letter by your own hand. In this letter, you will state clearly that becoming a monk was entirely your own choice, having nothing to do with me or Fahai. Furthermore, you will explicitly write that you are a philandering scumbag, detailing exactly how many women you have toyed with. Then, you will confess that you were never the one who saved Bai Suzhen in the first place. Finally, you will write down your sincerest well wishes, hoping that Bai Suzhen marries someone else, completely severing all ties between the two of you. You will tell her to live her own life, to never look for you, and to never worry about you again.”

Hearing this, both Xu Xian and Dong Qianqiu were utterly dumbfounded.

‘Du Yu, this… doesn’t seem right,’ Dong Qianqiu said telepathically. ‘If you do this, won’t Bai Suzhen never see Xu Xian again?’

‘Is that a bad thing?’ Du Yu retorted. ‘Sister Qianqiu, should Bai Suzhen really risk her own life over a guy like Xu Xian?’

‘This…’ Dong Qianqiu paused. Although Du Yu’s reasoning made perfect sense, deviating so wildly from the legendary plot could trigger unforeseeable consequences…

Xu Xian pondered for a long time before arguing, “Monk, do you take me for a fool? This is clearly an extortion scheme! What if I write this letter, and instead of taking me to become a monk or protecting my life, you murder me and steal my money? That foolish woman wouldn’t even be able to come save me if she wanted to!”

Du Yu sneered coldly and said, “Heh, you actually just reminded me. If you refuse to write this letter, I will beat you to death with my bare hands right here and now.”